Last spring my boys were offered a once in a lifetime opportunity - visit three countries in Europe with their fellow Air Cadets... without their parents (yeah they kind of liked that part).
The boys travelled with
EF Tours who is well known for their educational travel experiences. The trip was designed to honour the 70th anniversary of
VE Day (the end of World War II in Europe) as well as give them the chance to experience three entirely different cultures.
There was a full year to prepare (ahem, and pay) for this experience but before I get into the particulars, would you like to know where they visited?
First - London, England
...then Amsterdam via an overnight ferry
and lastly, frankly the one that I was most jealous of, Paris, France.
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| The boys took a night cruise to see the sights, including the Eiffel Tower! |
Three very distinct countries, each closely entwined with our Canadian history. Many Canadian travellers are told to display the Canadian flag on their person while in Europe and I have to agree. The boys regaled us with tales of people stopping them in the streets to say how much they love Canada and tell them of the time they visited or met a Canadian. This was especially true when visiting The Netherlands. One of the many special parts of this trip was their participation in the 70th anniversary ceremonies that commemorated
Canada's liberation of The Netherlands and the boys said many people came up to them and thanked them and shook their hand. A moment like that sticks with you forever.
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| A nifty little map of their trip! |
EF Tours has webpages dedicated to your selected trip. This was helpful for the boys to research the places they would see and helped us determine what to pack based on the weather for each region. The website also provided a full itinerary, which you can see
here. This helped us as parents follow along and know where they were at all times (I will talk a little more about communication with the boys later).
But enough with that, on with the tour!
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| T: The bunting went up and the streets erupted, Kate had her baby! BL: The board is displayed at Buckingham Palace announcing the birth of a girl. BL: Site seeing in London |
Their first stop was London and at the time we were all awaiting the arrival of the new Royal baby. When we dropped the boys off at the airport I jokingly said that maybe they will be in London when the baby arrives. Well, not only were they in London, they were at Buckingham Palace that morning! The boys know I adore Kate so they sent me text photos of all the excitement on the streets the minute they connected to wi-fi, they even managed to get a few pictures of the board being brought out to announce Princess Charlotte's birth. They visited Churchill's War Room, St. Paul's Cathedral and spent time in Piccadilly Circus (they love telling us it's not an actual circus), Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The next day they spent the morning at Bletchley Park before boarding an overnight ferry to Hoek.
The boys were part of the Liberation Day parade and placed Canadian flags at the graves of Canadian soldiers. Something that our Air Cadet squad did that I thought was a great idea is they found local soldiers (from Waterloo Region) who were buried there. The kids were given the name and they had to research as much as possible about that person. On the day of their visit they got to see the grave of the soldier they were paired with. The Oldest was especially humbled by this when he found out his solider had lied to enlist and died at around 16-17 years of age, which was quite common. They also sat with the people of Wageningen during the ceremony that was also attended by our then, Prime Minister Stephen Harper whose speech was broadcast live on tv stations! We PVR'd every news stations feed hoping to spot the boys in the crowd (no such luck). After their time in the Netherlands, which included a trip to the Anne Frank house, a walking tour of Amsterdam and time spent at a dairy cheese farm, they departed for France. (Note - I'm unable to share photos of their time in The Netherlands as they contain their fellow Air Cadets faces. I need to respect their privacy.)
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| TL: The Youngest on Juno Beach, TR: Canadian graves in The Netherlands, B: Vimy Ridge |
Juno Beach was a highlight for the boys, as was
Vimy Ridge. You can see in the bottom photo how hilly the ground is. This land is where the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the
Battle of Arras (I was so excited about this as I had just written a history paper on the Battle of Arras!) played out in World War I. Much of the ground here is uneven due to the tunnels and trenches that were dug and bomb craters. Some of the trenches are preserved and you can tour them (which the boys did). There is still the danger of unexploded munitions so large areas of the grounds are closed to the public.
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| Palace of Versailles |
Next they were off to Paris! The Palace of Versailles was an optional add on (re: more money) to the trip. I mean, you are already there you might as well go over the top! The Oldest, my architecture loving kindred spirit, loved the palace. He took many photos of the walls and trim to be able to capture all the little details. I had heard the Hall of Mirrors can become rather crowded and the bottom photo is exactly what I expected. The boys were impressed with the interiors and especially impressed with the exteriors. The gardens at Versailles are stunning!
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| TL: Boys at Eiffel Tower, TR: Standing on Juno Beach, BL: Picking seashells in Juno Beach, BR: The Oldest and the Mona Lisa |
It took a lot, but I finally convinced the boys to snap a few photos of themselves! I really wanted a photo of them in front of the Eiffel Tower and I got what I wanted and a few others! It's interesting to see the Mona Lisa behind all the glass protection. My ocean loving boys found a great spot for picking seashells at Juno Beach. Since they were gone over Mother's Day for this trip, they brought me back a stack of seashells the size of your hand! They spent some time touring the city, including a night time cruise along the Seine and a walking tour to see the famous sites such as Place de la Concorde and Champs-Elysees.
After one last look at Paris, it was time to go home.
With fond memories of countries they had only seen in the movies
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| Amsterdam |
And picture after picture of cool cars...
They are boys after all.
So that was the boys' big Europe Trip with EF Tours. They had a great time (well, there was one home sick incident) and for The Oldest it solidified his love of travel. He is headed to Europe again this summer, this time with his school's History club, to tour Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
So....you probably have a few questions about sending our boys across the ocean, on their own, for this trip. I've received a lot (like, a lot) of questions from friends and family. Here's a small sample.
Q: Were you afraid of sending them on this trip, especially given all the attacks going on in Europe lately? (The Charlie Hebdo attack took place only 5 months prior to their departure)
A: We spent a year leading up to this trip so we had a lot of time to talk about how the trip will play out (mom & dad drop you at the airport with your group, you board the plane with the group, etc.) and spent a long time talking about how to be safe (stick to your brother like glue). Working in a Disaster field does have it's advantages and the boys and I have talked about how to be safe during bad weather and terrorist attacks. This article on
Town & Country is a fantastic read. I've always said the best thing to do is maintain a low profile, no lingering, have your papers and anything you need for the day on your person, be prepared, always have your cell phone charged, and if anything happens, you run. Drop as low as you can and just run away from the sound/noise. Holding your brother's hand of course.
The Oldest is the most mature young adult I know. He is well travelled, so I felt comfortable. The Youngest was a little young (12) but I knew he was going with this big brother so again, I felt comfortable. And then, dropping them off at the airport, I snapped a last photo of them walking away...
...and started to bawl like a baby. I never cry, it's so unlike me. But my babies were leaving me and I just started to wail. I'm not kidding. People were staring. I cried into The Oldest's sweater and kept apologizing for crying. He took it like a champ. I'm sure I embarrassed them to no end. So, to answer your question. Yes I was afraid (and made an ass of myself). But I trust my boys. And the Air Cadet leaders that went with them. And the tour group they were a part of. They went, had a blast, and came home safe (and mildly mortified of their mother). For me, travelling makes working for a living worthwhile. I'm not going to let a bunch of radicals ruin something that brings so much joy to my family.
Q: Is it expensive? How do the payments work? What money did they take with them?
A: Um, heck yeah it's expensive. But it was far cheaper to send them on this then try and take the four of us on the same trip. We did a lot of fundraising to help with this trip (which didn't really work out to too much of a savings) but the saving grace is that we had a full year to pay for the trip. We made monthly payments that ended a few weeks before departure. The trip included all flights, transportation, accommodations, admission to sites, breakfasts and dinners. They had to bring their own money for lunch and spending money. We had the boys plan out 30 euros or pounds for each day. They had individual envelopes with the date written on them and each morning they opened the envelope and had their spending money. It was more than enough for food, snacks and trinkets. They both came home with a video game so I'm thinking it was actually too much money. C'est la vie.
Q: Were you able to keep in touch with them while they were on the trip?
A: Let's just give a big thank you to Facebook and Twitter right now. Oh and wi-fi in public places. When I was 13 and visited Europe on my own the only way to contact my family was by placing a very expensive phone call. The boys messaged us on Twitter when the Facebook app wouldn't load on their phones and when it did, they would call us on the Messenger service. On top of that, our Air Cadet leaders emailed us nightly with details of their day and photos. We also knew if there was ever an emergency we could connect with EF Tours right away. Having the detailed itinerary helped too. We knew exactly where they were at any moment in case anything ever happened.
Q: Did you buy insurance for the boys?
A: We did opt in for the insurance offered through EF Tours. We also made sure the boys had our insurance providers world assistance cards in their wallet and knew the details of how to connect with our insurance company.
Q: How do you pack for 11 days in Europe?
A: Carefully. We tracked the weather and knew that London was going to be colder than Paris (this was last May). We packed lots of light layers and from their photos, we see that they used them well. A warm vest was provided by Air Cadets and EF Tours gave them all matching red rain coats and Canadian flag hats. A few pairs of jeans, khakis for dinners, walking shoes and one pair of nice boat shoes, and lots of extra socks. I bought them each two new packages of socks as they were not going to have access to laundry. The hotels they were staying at did not have elevators (I've heard this is common) so we tried to pack light as they would have to carry their own luggage. I highly recommend suitcases with the 4 moving wheels on the bottom as they were easier for the boys to maneuver. Also a backpack with two straps, not a cross body. This kept important items near by and allowed them to be hands free.
Q: How did you deal with the boys getting home sick?
A: The Youngest came down with a case of the missing home blues. I remember being that age and feeling the exact same way. It's different for everyone but we talked over Facebook messenger everyday, made plans to do it again the next day and just tried to be very positive about what they were seeing that day and what to look forward to the next. I also send The Youngest this poem (I'm so glad he doesn't read this blog, he'd be mortified right now)
I Carry Your Heart by E.E. Cummings and that seemed to help. It's all part of growing up.
Q: Did they get sick at all?
A: Luckily the answer is no. The Youngest is prone to headaches and in the past has had ear problems so we sent him and his brother with Tylenol in their carry ons with instructions on when and how to take. We also sent a little care package of pepto, band-aids and the like in their toiletry bag but they never used any of it.
Q: Did they like the food?
A: They were not impressed with the food at all. They ate out everyday and the dinner restaurants were pre-planned. I'm thinking it's our fault for spoiling them all these years (AMH is a fabulous chef) but they did rave about fast food in The Netherlands (I have no idea why Burger King tastes better there than at home). The Oldest complained about the cost of a pastry and latte in Paris so they only did that the one time. The food was not to their taste but they didn't come home starving so it couldn't have been that bad.
Whew - we made it through! That was a lot of info! If you have any questions about the trip please leave them in the comments or email me at Celebratingthislife@gmail.com. I'll update this post with any questions that come in.
